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Endoscopy also encouraged

Following on Sei's thoughts about robotic-assisted surgery, a fascinating job posting rolled through my inbox that I just couldn't resist sharing. It describes an important driver of US healthcare costs with almost haiku succinctness:

General Internist

Step into a lucrative mature practice, no buy-in

Practitioner has been here 21 years

Practice located in new clinic building attached to Hospital

Practice managed by Hospital

Need to be able to do stress tests and cardiolytes

Reading echocardiograms a plus

Endoscopy also encouraged

Nice, quiet community in Northeastern [large Western state].

What do stress tests, cardiolytes, echocardiograms and endoscopy have to do with serving a small, (presumably) elderly rural community with a 49-bed hospital? Especially by a general internist? "Lucrative" is indeed an apt description for this particular skill set, for surely it isn't very likely to be "healthy", "caring" or "evidence-based".

But what fodder for haiku. Why is healthcare in the US expensive and inefficient?

Endoscopy and echoStress test and cardiolyteLucrative internist.

Still, I am no match for the ad's own brilliance:

Stress tests and cardiolytesEchocardiograms a plusEndoscopy also encouraged.

Feel free to post your own haiku in the comments...

by: John Newman

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Thank you for this blogpost. It so hits the nail on the head of sooooo much that is the crux of what is sooooo wrong with healthcare and so wasteful, as well as too aggressively exposing patients to procedures that are not without risks! So many really wonderful IM Docs,for instance, that I have known have turned into near assembly line procedureists.

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